LOCAL BRIEFING

October 31, 2005

BuySafe of Arlington plans to announce today that Mary Dridi, former chief financial officer of WebMethods, will serve in the same capacity at the Internet start-up. Dridi, who had been with Fairfax-based WebMethods since 1998, resigned in May.

BuySafe backs online retailers with surety bonds to guarantee consumers they will get their money back if purchases are not delivered. On Friday, WebMethods named Mark Wabschall, its chief accounting officer, as its new chief financial officer.

Sutron of Sterling, a provider of hydrological and meteorological monitoring systems, was added to the Nasdaq Capital Market (formerly called the Nasdaq SmallCap Market) last week. Sutron previously traded over the counter.

NII Holdings of Reston, which sells Nextel cell phone service in Latin America, said its board approved a 2-for-1 stock split payable Nov. 21 to stockholders of record on Nov. 11.

The Federal City Council, an organization of business leaders involved in civic affairs, named former Oklahoma governor Frank Keating its 15th president. Keating is president and chief executive of the American Council of Life Insurers.

Spherix of Beltsville has again won support from the Government Accountability Office for a contract to run a reservation system for federal parks. The Department of Agriculture has twice awarded the U.S. Forest Service contract, worth up to $128 million, to ReserveAmerica, a subsidiary of Ticketmaster, over Spherix's bid. As it did last December, the GAO this month sustained Spherix's challenge to the award, sending the issue back to the Agriculture Department.